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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25948636">Clay and Kiln</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Periphyton/pseuds/Periphyton'>Periphyton</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>And that firebenders can be good fathers, Author has scientific headcanons about bending and needed to write a fic about them, But right before The Chase, Civilian uses for bending, Gen, Mixed Earth and Fire family, Post-Episode: s02e07 Zuko Alone, S2 Zuko, Slice of Life, Soil hydrology and basic soil science, Zuko learns about some non-military uses for firebending, Zuko.exe has stopped working, and they have kids</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 07:20:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,127</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25948636</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Periphyton/pseuds/Periphyton</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After leaving the town where he tried to help that stupid kid, Zuko is forced to spend a day with another family in the Earth Kingdom. Only this family has a secret that will challenge everything he thinks he knows about how the world works.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>None</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>178</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Clay</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Zuko had always known that the universe hated him. In fact, some days it was the only thing he trusted: no matter how desperate he was, he could always count on things getting worse. Having the worst luck under Agni’s light might be a curse but at least it didn’t surprise him anymore. So when he woke before dawn to find his ostrich horse lame and limping the day after leaving that stupid town with that stupid little kid, he just sighed and knew it was Agni’s way of reminding him that suffering would be his teacher. </p>
<p>He got the bird up and walked beside it to lighten it’s burden. It was slow going and he felt sick feeling every lost minute of trying to find the Avatar before his sister did.  At least the land here wasn’t as dry as it had been at the village. He could smell water nearby and the road was heading towards a line of green trees following the meandering curves of a river steaming in the early morning light. As he drew near the river he heard voices of men and children. Zuko settled his ostrich horse in some bushes and crept up to observe these people before deciding if it would be worth it to approach them.</p>
<p>There was a man seated in a wagon at the top of the riverbank minding a pair of horse ostriches, and another man and two children at the river’s edge. The man and a boy were digging in the mud while a little girl balanced on a fallen tree trunk over the water with fishing nets. They sounded happy as the man at the bank called up to the man at the wagon. “It’s good down here, how many baskets do you want?”</p>
<p>“Do you think we can fill all of them?” he yelled back. </p>
<p>“I think so. And Hua already caught her first fish!”</p>
<p>“I got a fish daddy!” the girl yelled. “It’s really big! Can you cook it tonight?” </p>
<p>The man laughed. “With my own two hands if that’s what you want.” </p>
<p>“Yay! I’m going to catch even more fish!” The girl splashed vigorously in the water, trying to chase more fish into her nets.</p>
<p>“See if you can find some wild water garlic to go with them,” her brother said, still helping the man digging up dirt from the exposed bank. </p>
<p>“Don’t you have enough garlic in your garden? I’m trying to catch some fish here!” the girl told her brother. </p>
<p>“Hua, stop teasing Chen and stay focused on your fish,” the man said, before the children could start fighting.</p>
<p>Zuko considered this. The family sounded like they were used to being kind to each other, the adults cooperating, the children helping and unafraid. He crept closer to see what they were digging for, and watched as the boy walked backwards and barefoot over the dry mud along a section of the river bank - and the water followed his feet through the dirt. Was this boy a water bender, here in the middle of the Earth kingdom? These people looked nothing like the brown skinned, blue eyed people of the Water tribes - everything about them from the straw hats to the simple green and brown clothing was pure Earth Kingdom. But somehow the boy was moving the water through the earth with bending.</p>
<p>The water didn’t follow his feet everywhere, sometimes turning aside and soaking into a different patch of mud. The boy didn’t try to redirect the water, instead he let it pool where it wanted to. Then the man would dig up that patch of mud and put in the lined baskets he was carrying. They did this until all four baskets were full, then put them on yokes to carry them up the bank to the man waiting by the wagon, and came back down with four more baskets. Meanwhile the girl kept up a running commentary as she caught three more fish in her nets, getting herself completely soaked in the process. Whatever her brother was doing moving water around, she was catching fish without any extra assistance from bending. </p>
<p>Zuko rocked back on his heels and considered the family before them. The children teased each other but without any real cruelty, and the man with them kept them focused without threatening them. Their father was proud of his daughter catching fish and sounded happy to cook it for her. This was a family bound by love, not fear. They might not be able or willing to help him, but he thought it unlikely that they would attack him either, as long as they thought him a fellow citizen of the Earth Kingdom. He went back to get his ostrich horse.</p>
<p>The damn bird was not happy about being forced to move and snapped at him, but Zuko got it up and lead it limping over to the man in the wagon. “Excuse me,” he said. “Excuse me, sir, my bird has gone lame. Do you know where I could find someone to care for it?”</p>
<p>The man got down from the wagon with the help of a staff and easily limped over to Zuko. “I might be able to help you, young man,” he said. “How bad off is your bird?” He tipped his hat up to look at Zuko with a friendly smile.</p>
<p>Zuko looked at him and froze in shock. </p>
<p>The man was from the Fire Nation. There was no mistaking the shape of his eyes, the angle of his cheekbones. His eyes were a warm amber, not quite the pure gold of the royal family, but close. And he looked at Zuko with the same shocked recognition.  </p>
<p> Zuko stepped back, ready to run or fight. This was too much, an Earth family with a water bender son and a father from the Fire Nation. Whatever sick joke the universe was playing on him, he wanted nothing of it. </p>
<p>“Wait! Please, don’t go, let me help you,” the Fire man took a step forward, one hand out, palm up, open and nonthreatening. “My name is Goru. Who are you? Are you lost?”</p>
<p>“Goru, what’s going on up there?” the other man yelled up from the river bank. </p>
<p>“There’s a young man here, he might need some help.” Goru called back. Then he turned back to Zuko and smiled, the kind of smile a man used when he didn’t want to spook a scared animal. “What’s your name?”</p>
<p>“My name is Lee. I just need some help for my bird, I don’t want to cause any trouble.” Zuko told him. “I have a few coins.” </p>
<p>“Let’s see how bad your bird is. It might be better to keep your money and work while it’s recovering.” Goru held out his hand to the ostrich horse, letting it sniff him before scratching the feathers at the back of it’s head. He knelt down and felt the swollen muscles on one leg, then stood up with the help of his staff. “I’ve got room in the family stable for this one, while it recovers. You can work for your keep if you wish.” </p>
<p>“For how long?” Zuko asked. <i>How long am I going to be stuck here with a lame bird, while Azula and the Avatar get even farther out of reach?</i></p>
<p>“I don’t know. A day or two perhaps? At least for today my family can offer you our hospitality. If you like you can help with chores to save your coin.” Goru smiled at him the same don’t-spook-the-owlcat smile. “We’re having fresh fish stew with rice and onions tonight, and maybe some honey dumplings afterwards. My wife is a great cook, and you can wash and rest for a night in a bed instead of on the ground.”</p>
<p><i>'Aww, Zuzu, look at you, being bribed with dirt peasant food. That’s so sweet of you, giving up your pride as a Prince for some rice and fish.’</i> He heard his sister mocking him. <i>'Shut up Azula,'</i> he growled back at her in his head, and his stomach growled in support. “Thank you, I appreciate your offer.” he said, keeping his eyes downcast. </p>
<p>“That’s settled then,” Goru said, and called out to his family just coming up from the river. “Everybody, this is Lee, he’ll be spending the night with us. Lee, my brother in law Shan, and my children Chen and Hua.” </p>
<p>“I got FIVE FISH Dad! Mom can make stew for all of us AND our guest!” Hua announced at the top of her lungs. She looked like she was barely eight years old and soaking wet, hauling a net almost as big as she was. Shan and Chen were covered in mud, with streaks of it even on their faces and in their hair, and both had yokes with baskets of even more of the clay like mud balanced on their shoulders. Chen was not much older than his sister but carrying the same size baskets as his uncle. </p>
<p>“Alright, let's get these in the wagon and clean up a bit,” Shan said. They placed the baskets inside the wagon, lashing them down carefully. Zuko tried to imagine Uncle coming up with some proverb about the hidden value of river mud but he couldn’t think of anything.</p>
<p>Then the boy settled into a bending stance and passed his hands over them. The mud followed his hands, leaving their clothing and body to rest on the ground. “Are you an earth bender?” he blurted out in surprise. </p>
<p>“More like a mud bender,” Hua said, teasing before her brother could say anything. She had changed into dry clothes and was grinning, showing the gaps where her teeth hadn’t yet filled in.</p>
<p>“I’ll bend you into the mud!” Chen snapped back, but before anything happened their father stepped between them.</p>
<p>“That’s enough. We have a guest with us so behave. Now let’s get going, your mother is waiting.” Goru got back on the wagon and his children climbed in on either side of him. </p>
<p>Shan came over to Zuko. “You can put your gear in the wagon, to lighten the load on your bird. I’ll walk with you. It’s not far, and we’ll get your bird settled in first thing when we get there.”  </p>
<p>“Thanks,” Zuko grunted, and shifted his gear. The ostrich horse gave a chirpy sigh of relief, and they set out with the bird limping alongside the wagon and the two men walking beside it. </p>
<p>When they got to the house Goru called out to his wife. “Yune, sweetheart, we’re home. We got clay, fish, and a guest.”</p>
<p>A woman came out. She looked like any other woman in this region of the Earth Kingdom, neither beautiful or ugly, her hair pulled back, solid and stocky with a toddler balanced on one hip. “We’ve got a guest? Who is it?”</p>
<p>Goru went over to her and picked up the baby. He leaned in and kissed her cheek, saying something Zuko couldn’t hear. She looked at him and Zuko felt her examining him, with his pale skin, golden eyes and fire scarred face. But still she smiled and gave him a slight bow. “Welcome to our home. You can work with us and share our meals today while your ostrich horse recovers.”</p>
<p>“Thank you for your hospitality,” Zuko said, and bowed back. Then Hua came running up and almost knocked him over to get to her mother. </p>
<p>“MOM! I CAUGHT SEVEN FISH!! We can have all the fish for dinner tonight!” the little girl was still holding onto her fishing net and almost jumping up and down with excitement.</p>
<p>“You didn’t catch seven fish, you only caught five!” her brother corrected her. “Mom I found enough clay for eight baskets!”</p>
<p>“I did too catch seven fish, two of them got away.” </p>
<p>“Five fish and eight baskets, you both did such a good job today, I’m so proud of you two.” The children’s mother put a hand on each of her children’s heads, blessing both of them for their work. “Now go have a bite to eat, we still have the rest of today’s work to do.” She smiled warmly at Zuko. “You can have some as well after you get your bird settled in the stable so it can rest.”</p>
<p>--------</p>
<p>‘A bite to eat’ meant steamed buns with chopped and flavored vegetables in the center. Just smelling them was enough to make Zuko’s mouth water but he forced himself to only eat one. Then a second one was shoved in his hand as Chen walked by with a wink. He shoved it in his mouth before he could think twice. </p>
<p>“Hey Lee, over here.” Shan called to him. “Time to get some work done. Have you ever sifted clay before?”</p>
<p>Zuko looked at the baskets of mud from the river bank and the flat circular pans with open lattice bottoms. “Um, no.” </p>
<p>--------</p>
<p>Sifting mud. He was Prince Zuko, son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai, heir to the throne of the Fire Nation, and he was working with some Earth Kingdom peasants sifting wet, slurry mud through mesh, picking out rocks and sticks. Azula might as well kill him now. </p>
<p>But he worked and did not complain. Shan, Chen, and Hua worked beside him talking and laughing and telling jokes so bad even Uncle would cringe. He wasn’t sure if he was even helping; Hua had less mud on herself than he did. Chen had to bend it off of him several times. The boy was the last person to sift what the rest of them had already worked on, bending even more bits of gravel out, moving it around and sifting it through an even finer layer of metal mesh. </p>
<p>“What is this for?” he finally asked. </p>
<p>It was Chen who answered. “Mom makes pottery. She’s the best, but first we have to get the clay out of all the mud and junk.” He got into a stance, rooting his bare feet to the pounded earth floor. The finely sifted mud moved through the water with each pass of his hands, collecting around itself until the water was clear. Then it lifted out of the water as the boy raised his hand, and he plucked it out of the air. In his hands it shaped itself into a brick, smooth sided and uniformly grey without a single speck of rock or debris.   </p>
<p>“This is clay. My mom turns it into everything, then Dad finishes it and we sell things at the market.” Chen said proudly.</p>
<p>“ . . . Oh. Ok.” That still didn’t make any sense.</p>
<p>Chen put it down on the table. “Let’s get the rest done before lunch.”</p>
<p>-------</p>
<p>Lunch was steamed vegetables with herbs, noodles, and baked fish. As their guest Zuko was served first, but he waited until the whole family was served before he started eating. This family was more prosperous than the last family he had eaten with - the food was better, and they ate off of bowls that were beautifully glazed instead of chipped and worn. Even their chopsticks were made from fine ceramics instead of shaved wood or bamboo. Zuko ate quietly and listened to the family talk, deflecting any questions about himself. </p>
<p>“Did you finish with the clay?” Yune asked her son, and wiped the toddler’s face.</p>
<p>Chen tried to say something through a mouthful of noodles. Hua giggled, and Yune just looked at him like mothers do. He swallowed and tried again. “Yes, all of it. We got four bricks worth.” </p>
<p>“That’s wonderful. I’ll get it settled this afternoon.”</p>
<p>“What do you do with it?” Zuko asked again.</p>
<p>“I use it for making pottery,” Yune told him. Zuko’s confusion must have been obvious, because Goru picked up the bowl he had been eating out of, and tapped with his chopsticks. </p>
<p>“Pottery,” he said, smiling. “Yune and I made these.”</p>
<p>“Oh.” He looked at the bowl in his hands again. It must be some type of earthbending, he supposed. It didn’t matter. He needed to leave this place and get back to trying to catch the Avatar before Azula did. Back to trying to catch up to his sister, as usual. “Please excuse me, I need to check on my bird.” He put the bowl down and placed his chopsticks across it, rose, and bowed slightly to Yune in thanks for the meal. </p>
<p>Shan got up as well. “I’ll take you to the stable.” </p>
<p>When they checked the ostrich horse it hissed at Zuko and refused to get up. He knew Shan was watching him, not that there was anything he could do to stop him if he decided to take one of their ostrich horses and just burn the place down behind him. The man was a civilian, a farmer - he could probably throw a good punch but even if he was another earthbender, he was not a warrior. </p>
<p>“I think it’s hungry. We have some extra feed, that might help,” Shan offered.</p>
<p>“Your family seems to be doing well, if you have this much to spare for a guest.” </p>
<p>Shan went over to the storage box and scooped a mix of grain and hay into a large earthen bowl, and brought it to the ostrich horse. “Yune and Goru have a good business, and the kids bring in a lot of food with their gardening and fishing. The spirits have blessed us, and we can afford to be generous.” </p>
<p><i>Or you can afford to appease someone you think is a Fire Nation soldier,</i> Zuko thought. Wearing Earth clothes and tipping the edge of a straw hat low over his face did little to disguise his nationality or the fact that he moved like the trained warrior he was. Especially to a family with another person from the Fire Nation in it. </p>
<p>“Is there anything else I can do to help while my bird recovers?” he said. </p>
<p>“I give the children their lessons in the afternoon. Perhaps Yune or Goru might need some help, unless you want to review sums with Chen and Hua. I think we have an extra abacus somewhere.” Shan said. “Or you could look after the baby for awhile.”</p>
<p>Zuko gave him a bit of a glare. Who in their right mind would hand him a baby? Shan smiled back, his face so open and honest that Zuko couldn’t read anything from him. It was more annoying than if the man was watching him with hostility and honest suspicion.</p>
<p>“Actually, I’d like to see what Yune does with the clay. I’m still not sure I understand it.” Zuko smiled back and tried to look as disarmingly honest as Shan did. It wasn’t a look he could pull off but it was worth a try. </p>
<p>Shan led him through the barn to Yune’s workroom. Along one side of the wall were shelves full of cups, plates, jugs and bowls of all sizes, cooking pots, and all manner of clay vessels with different designs and patterns marked into the bare clay. Some were dull grey, others covered with dull pigments. Most of them were elegant and masterfully made, others were simple and blocky, a few childishly crude. Another shelf had bowls of glazes, tools, and blocks of unshaped clay like the ones he had made with the rest of the family earlier, wrapped in damp cloth. </p>
<p>Yune herself was seated in the middle of the room doing something that involved a small round table spinning in a circle while she pressed her hands against the wet clay in the center. In her hands the lump of clay smoothed and changed shape as it spun around on the table. Zuko had never seen earthbending that looked so graceful and fluid as the clay transformed in her hands into a large bowl. </p>
<p>“Hello Lee,” she said without looking up at him.</p>
<p>“That’s what you use the river clay for,” Zuko said, finally understanding what Chen had meant when he said that his mother makes everything. “This is your earthbending.”</p>
<p>She laughed, and so did Shan. “No, this is just skill. Shan and Goru can do it too, even you could learn the basics with practice.”</p>
<p>“But I’m not an earthbender.”</p>
<p>She glanced up at him. “I told you, I’m not earthbending right now. This is skill," she nodded to her clay encrusted hands shaping the wet clay running through her fingers. "And this is earthbending.” She moved hands away from the spinning bowl. As she held her hands beside the clay without touching it, the clay continued to change shape, growing wider then narrow at the top. The spinning slowed down and patterns appeared on the surface mirroring the patterns she made in the air with her hands. When it stopped it was a fully shaped and decorated jug.</p>
<p>“Using bending isn’t enough if you don’t have skill first. Then then bending becomes just another skill,” she explained. </p>
<p>That made more sense than it should, considering that it was completely wrong to compare the noble and superior element of firebending to what some Earth peasants did with fancy mud. “Did you make all of these?” He gestured to the shelves.</p>
<p>“Most of them,” she said, and got up, carefully removing the finished jug off the table. “I have an apprentice, and my husband likes to make basic things, cups and bowls. I’m trying to teach Chen and Hua how to do this but they aren’t as interested.” She put the jug down on a shelf with other jugs without anything added to the damp clay, and went over to another shelf that had a selection of dry bowls covered in dull colors. “Lee, can you bring that cart over here?” </p>
<p>Zuko looked, saw a cart in the corner, and brought it over. She loaded the bowls onto it and gave it a push towards him. “Can you take these to Goru? He’s just at the other side of the courtyard, working the kiln.” She paused, and looked him right in the eyes. “Perhaps you could help him.”</p>
<p>At the other end of the courtyard, Goru sat on a bench in front of a domed furnace, his lame leg stretched out to the side. Zuko pushed the cart over to him, already suspicious of what the other man was doing. But it was still a shock when he got close and saw live fire flow from Goru’s hands into the kiln.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Kiln</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Zuko spends time working with Goru, learning about firebending in a way he could never have imagined.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What are you doing? Are you burning her work?” Zuko couldn’t believe this. He had suspected that Goru was a firebender and not just a Fire national, and knew that Goru had the same suspicion about him. But after listening to him talk about making things with his wife he hadn’t expected to see the man blatantly destroying her work with his fire.</p><p>“Yes, I’m firing these pots. This is a kiln, it’s supposed to do this. The heat from the fire is what changes the clay into ceramic. Otherwise the dried clay will just crumble and break.” Goru kept the flame steady as he explained. “The ceramic artists ad potters throughout the Earth Kingdom have many different methods for keeping the steady heat needed for firing pottery, using skill and technique. But I enjoy using my fire for this and it cuts down on fuel costs.”  </p><p>“But what are you doing?” Zuko asked. Now he was just confused. </p><p>The following explanation was worse than listening to his uncle trying to explain something. No, this lecture brought back memories of the one time he had asked his ship’s engineers how they maintained the steam engines that ran the rustbucket he had been trapped on. Throughout Grou’s entire explanation the flow of fire never varied, never even flickered. This wasn’t the type of firebending that would win in an Agni Kai but it was still an impressive display of control and stamina.</p><p>“How did you learn all this?” Zuko interrupted, rather than listen to the technical explanation of fusing crystalline structure, the types of minerals in glazes, and something about pores. </p><p>“Yune and I learned from our master, Silla. She taught both of us the craft of pottery, from sifting out raw clay to the final firing. She wasn’t a bender so we learned the skills first, and then we taught ourselves how to use earth and fire bending in our craft.” He lowered his arm that had been steadily offering fire to the glowing heart of the kiln and raised his other one to continue the flame without losing a second during the shift.</p><p>“If you’re a firebender, why would you even learn an Earth craft? Isn’t this -” Zuko stopped and bit off what he was about to say. </p><p>“Isn’t this what, Lee?” Goru gave him a very uncle-like look of <i>you’re missing the point but I’m going to stay patient with you anyway.</i> “Every single day I work with my wife to create things that are as beautiful as they are practical. Things that people can use in their lives, things that matter. Right now I’m firing cooking pots that people will buy and use to prepare food for their family. This is an honorable craft that takes skill, technique, and a lot more fire control than just burning down fields and villages. And at the kiln or potter’s wheel I’m not limited by this.” He slapped his bad leg. </p><p>Zuko had avoided looking at the man’s deformity. He hated it when people stared at him and his scar, and he had tried to show his respect to the older man by not staring at him. Now he looked down and saw how one foot was deformed, smaller than the other with the heel pulled up against his calf while the bottom of his foot twisted inward instead of against the ground. The shape of it was obvious through the custom made leather slipper he wore as a shoe, and the muscle was thin and atrophied. Only a sliver of the outside edge by the pinky toe would even touch the ground.</p><p>“I was born with twisted feet, and I’ve been on crutches my whole life.” Goru said, when Zuko looked back up at his face. “But it doesn’t limit what I can do here, with my family. My skills matter more.”    </p><p> Zuko nodded. “So that’s why you live in the Earth Kingdom.”</p><p>“Yes. I was born in one of the colony towns in the Hu Xin province. My parents were military advisors from the Fire Nation but my siblings and I were all born here. I was the middle of five children, born a cripple who could never stand on my own, let alone stand in a proper fighting stance for firebending.”</p><p><i>That was a mistake,</i> Zuko thought. The level of control Goru was showing by maintaining an even, steady heat would make him invaluable in the engineering room of any military ship. He had known disabled war veterans on his former ship who had been discharged from military service because of their injuries. They had been some of the most reliable people in his crew over two and a half years of wandering around the world hunting a ghost. </p><p>“That was foolish of them,” he said. “They should have recognized what you can do and find a way for you to be useful.”</p><p>“Yes, they should have. Instead by the time I was fourteen years old I was desperate enough to do the stupidest thing possible, which was hitch a ride out of town at the very start of winter with no plan and only what supplies I could sneak out with me.” </p><p><i>I did dumber things than that when I was fourteen.</i> Zuko remembered some of the truly shirshu-shit crazy things he tried to do not that long ago, after the first anniversary of his banishment passed and he realized just how futile his quest to find the Avatar really was. Well, how futile it was supposed to be. </p><p>“ . . . and I would have been dead by midwinter if I hadn’t met Shan.” Goru said, and changed his fire hand again.</p><p>“So that’s how you met, when he saved your life?” Zuko asked, and cringed inside at how stupidly awkward he sounded. But if this man wanted to share his life story with Zuko, at least he wasn’t asking personal questions in return. And despite himself, Zuko found himself drawn into his story. He had never met someone like Goru - a crippled firebender who chose to live in the Earth Kingdom as a husband and father with a native family instead of as a colonist, and who dedicated himself to an earth-based craft. A firebender who was proud to have an earthbender son and wife.</p><p>“We saved each other’s lives. He had food with him, but no heat - I could light a fire but was nearly starving to death. We could work together or die together, and neither of us felt like dying in that storm. When his father and uncle found him he insisted that they take me as well. It was a bit awkward at first, but it worked out and I stayed. Then I married his sister” Goru said, with a bit of a smirk.</p><p>“How come they didn’t hate you for being a firebender?” Zuko asked. “Even if you did save their son?” </p><p>“Because I’m not a soldier. I may be a colonial and a firebender but I’ve never been a soldier, and I have never used my fire to hurt or threaten another person.” </p><p>Zuko looked away and said nothing. The banished son of Firelord Ozai focused on his breath control so he wouldn’t have to think of anything. </p><p>Goru continued his story, his voice getting lighter again. “Also they were quick to realize that having me around meant a reliable and infinite supply of hot water and warmed up blankets. And not having to stumble around before sunrise trying to light a fire in the cold winter mornings.”  He laughed, apparently enjoying his old memories. </p><p>Zuko turned back to him. “So they tolerated you because you were useful,” he said harshly, and scowled.  </p><p>Goru kept smiling. “That’s right. They barely tolerated me at first. But for the first time in my life I was tolerated because I was useful instead of pitied for being a cripple. What I could do as a firebender made a difference that winter because they didn’t need to spend as much money on fuel for cooking and heating. When Shan's mother got sick with pneumonia, I helped by holding bowls of water and herbs, heating them with my hands so she could breathe in the steam. Later their aunt Silla taught Yune and I the traditional methods of pottery used in the Earth kingdom, including how to use fire to transform clay into ceramic. By then they trusted me, and after I mastered the traditional methods I taught myself how to do it with bending.” </p><p>“Does it work better, with firebending?” Zuko asked.</p><p>“Not really. It depends on how much skill a person has, but it does save on fuel costs. Either way it takes a lot of time to master the technique. All of our kilns can be fired either traditionally for Yune and Shan, or I can just sit and do it.” As he spoke, the flow of fire from his hand steadily diminished with the same precise control that Goru had used to maintain it. Then he closed his hand and extinguished the flame. “There. These are done but it will take a full day for them to cool down.”</p><p>He stretched his back, rolled his shoulders and shook out his hands. Zuko saw the pitcher of water on the ground near the bench, just out of his reach, and picked it and handed it to him. Goru took it with a grateful smile. “Thanks. This isn’t fighting but it’s still hard work.” He drank slowly, sipping the water to avoid getting cramps. </p><p>“What are you going to do with these?” Zuko asked when Goru was done drinking, and placed one hand on the cart full of bowls. </p><p>“The pots in the next kiln are done. We can take them out and set these up for firing.” Goru reached for his crutch and stood up, stiff from sitting for so long. He was only slightly taller than Zuko, but his chest and shoulders were broad and strong. He walked over to another kiln several feet away from the one he had been working on, and Zuko followed with the cart. There was another empty cart next to it. 	</p><p>The pots and lids that came out of the kiln were covered in ash when Goru handed them to him. When they wiped the ash off the colors from the glaze came out, deep red, blue and green, dark blue, light brown, and bright red and yellow. The pots were thick and heavy, the type that would be slow to warm up but would hold heat for hours. </p><p>“I fired these yesterday, and look! Not a crack in the lot and the glaze is perfect!” Goru said happily. “We can sell all of them tomorrow. Let’s get the kiln cleaned out and start on the bowls, they cool down faster and can be ready by tomorrow as well.”</p><p>“Is this really how you want to use your firebending for the rest of your life? Just making things for a common market?” </p><p>Goru looked at him, and for the first time Zuko saw the anger he was used to getting from everybody except his uncle. “Just making things?” he said, his voice dangerously soft. “Just making things? As opposed to what, destroying things? Being just another <i>ashmaker</i> burning down peoples homes, driving them off their lands, scorching good farming soil down to bare rock?”</p><p>Zuko bristled hearing the common slur against firebenders used by a man with amber eyes who had just spent the entire afternoon being a living fuel source for a kiln. </p><p>The other firebender wasn’t done. “I use my fire to create things, to transform them. Would it be better if I used it to burn down and destroy things? To <i>burn people?</i>?” </p><p>“Fire is supposed to be the element of power!” Zuko growled. Caught between everything he was supposed to believe about being a firebender, and knowing deep down that Goru was right, it was easier just to be angry at him for acting like a common Earth peasant. And for that cheap shot about burning people.</p><p>“There is a difference between power and destruction,” Goru replied. “How much power do you think it takes to hold a steady heat for hours at a time?” When Zuko made no reply, he sighed, some of the tension leaving his body with relief that their argument wasn’t escalating further. He picked up the blue and green pot and handed it to Zuko. “Take this and sit down. I want to tell you something.”</p><p>Zuko took the pot and sat down awkwardly at the far edge of the bench. </p><p>“Look at what you are holding,” Goru said, his voice now calm and steady. “That was made from clay that came from the river bank, it is earth shaped with water, then transformed by fire. My son is an earthbender and he has a garden, growing vegetables rooted in the earth that need water and sunlight to grow. In that pot, I can turn vegetables and meat into food for my family. With fire on the outside and water on the inside, plants that were grown with earth and water are transformed into food, in a cooking pot made by earth and fire. Fire is fueled by air and our power comes from the breath, the air that we breathe for every minute of our lives. That is how all the elements work together in balance to sustain us.</p><p>“It was here, in the Earth Kingdom, that I learned what it truly means to be a firebender. Agni’s gift can be used for warmth and light, heat to survive the cold, light to hold back the dark. It can transform instead of just destroy. Fire is the energy that gives life, when it’s in balance with the other elements. But for the past hundred years the Firelords have turned it into a weapon of war and destruction, corrupting what Agni has given us into nothing but a source of fear and pain until the rest of the world hates us for having it.”</p><p>Zuko turned the pot over in his hands instead of meeting the other firebender’s eyes. This would be blasphemy back in the Fire Nation. It would be treason. It would be something his uncle would understand. “Why are you telling me this?” he asked.</p><p>Goru shrugged, and sighed. “Who else am I going to talk to? I love my family,  my wife, my son, my two little girls. But I don’t know if any of my children will ever hold fire in their hands. And I will never understand what it’s like for them to feel the earth come alive in their hands or under their feet. I’ve never known another firebender I could talk to about this so I might as well talk to you. Since you’re still listening.” </p><p><i>Uncle should be listening to this, not me,</i> Zuko thought. Iroh should be here instead of him. His uncle would understand what Goru was trying to explain without feeling like he was on the verge of a total identity crisis. But he knew one thing - Goru was lonely. As much as he loved his Earth family, he was lonely for another person like him to understand him. </p><p>“Do you want one of your children to be a firebender?” he asked.</p><p>“What are you crazy?! Of course not!” Goru snapped back. “Where in the world would it be safe for a child of the Earth Kingdom to be a firebender? I know what happens to the soldiers half-breed children who inherit their father’s firebending. My children are born of love, but those poor kids aren’t so lucky. So long as the war continues and people have reasons to hate firebenders I want my children to be safe and they can’t be safe if they are Earth-born firebenders. Can you even imagine what it would be like for an Earth-born firebender to grow up safely? Or a Fire-born earthbender?” </p><p>“No,” Zuko said softly. “I can’t.” He had never known a world that wasn’t defined by generations of war. He couldn’t even imagine it.</p><p>“Neither do I. None of us do. Nobody remembers what life is without the war. It’s been so long - I don’t know if even the Avatar can bring back balance to the world now that he’s back.” </p><p>Zuko’s hands tightened around the pot he was still holding. Just the mention of the Avatar twisted him around inside, making him feel tense and angry. Two and a half years chasing a ghost that only he believed in, until a twelve year old monk appeared at the South Pole with grey eyes and blue arrows tattooed across his body.</p><p>“ . . . I wonder what he thinks of all this.” Goru said.</p><p>“All of what?” Zuko asked.</p><p>Goru waved his hand in the general direction of the world. “All this. This world we live in now, where nobody knows anything but war with the Fire Nation. If he’s really come back from a hundred years ago, he’s the only person who remembers anything else.”</p><p>For the first time Zuko thought about that. About how confused that little boy had been on the deck of his ship facing his soldiers. Not just afraid, but confused. The same boy later told him about his friend from the Fire Nation, and asked him they could have been friends without a war between them. Even though Zuko had answered him with a blast of fire he, hadn’t forgotten how it felt waking up in a forest to gentle grey eyes instead of in a jail to cruel yellow ones. Or what it meant to wake up in the saddle of a flying bison instead of dying on the northern ice sheet.   </p><p>“I don’t know - but I wouldn’t underestimate the Avatar,” Zuko told him. That was a lesson he had learned the hard way, all the way from the south pole to the north. </p><p>“What do you mean?” Goru asked, his voice rising up. “You haven’t met him, have you?”</p><p>“I’ve heard a lot of stories about the Avatar,” Zuko said, being very careful not to lie. He knew he was a terrible liar, no matter how much easier it would be if he could lie even half was well as Azula.  </p><p>“So have I. I’ve heard he’s just a little boy, and that he can dance on the wind like a bird. I’ve also heard that he can turn into a monster and that he destroyed an entire Fire Navy fleet at the North Pole. I don’t know how much of that is rumor and what’s the truth.” Goru said.</p><p><i>All of it. All of that is the truth,</i> Zuko thought, but he said nothing and kept his eyes downcast. “Shouldn’t we get going on the rest of the work?” he asked. </p><p>“Yes, of course. Enough talking, let’s get to work. Will you help me out?” </p><p>Zuko nodded and stood up. Goru showed him how to clean out the kiln and place the next batch of items in it. Then he explained again the process of using fire to transform clay into ceramic. This time he stopped to make sure Zuko understood what each term meant and showed him the traditional, non-firebending methods. Then quietly, almost shyly, the older man explained how to do the same thing by casting fire from his hands, with a jumbled mix of Earth and Fire terms to explain the minute details of the techniques that he had personally created.  </p><p>It was a completely different form of firebending compared to anything Zuko had done before. What Goru showed him had nothing to do with fighting or using offensive blasts of power to intimidate. It was more like being a conduit of Angi’s power and energy, guiding the flow of fire rather than creating it. He had to reach out with his own chi to feel the inferno created in the center of the kiln and maintain it like a steady heartbeat, neither increasing or decreasing in tempo. When Goru had to take over for him he felt how powerful the other firebender’s control was over his flame. He could have become a strong warrior if there had been a way to accommodate his lame leg. </p><p>Perhaps this was better. Goru was kind, in a way Zuko had very little experience with. It was like learning from his uncle, being taught without threats or punishment. He wondered if other men from the Fire Nation were like this, civilian fathers and husbands who were not part of the military or royal family. </p><p>And so the afternoon passed. They took turns heating the kiln. Goru told him little stories about his children, or when he was courting Yune, and embarrassing mistakes he made learning how to throw pottery by hand and then how to firebend it in the kiln. Zuko couldn’t talk and maintain the flame in the kiln at the same time, so he just listened to the stories about a life completely different from his. </p><p>“Daddy, are you and Lee almost done?” Hua called out from the entrance to the courtyard. </p><p>Zuko startled and closed his hands, cutting off the fire from them. He had been slowly decreasing the temperature when Hua came out, and despite everything he didn’t want her to see him firebending. </p><p>“We’re almost done, sweetie,” Goru called back with a smile for his daughter. Then he glanced at Zuko, grinned, then turned back to his daughter. “Tell your mom Lee and I will be done soon. And I’ll cook the meat myself, so go get everything ready.”</p><p>“Really daddy?” she grinned, then looked at Zuko and her smile slipped away, replaced by uncertainty on her small face. She looked back to her father with a silent question in her eyes. </p><p>“I think it will be ok, right, Lee?” Goru said, answering her question.</p><p>“Um, sure. It’s ok.”</p><p>“Yay! I’ll go tell mom!” the little girl jumped up and twirled around to run back into the house.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I split the second half of the story into two separate chapters. Also, Silla is a historical Korean pottery style. I know the Earth Kingdom is mostly based off of China, but I think Korea was also used for inspiration, and I wanted to honor that with a nod to the pottery style Yune and Goru learned. </p><p>https://www.ancient.eu/article/983/silla-pottery/</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Earth and Fire</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Zuko has dinner with Goru's family, and learns a few more things about what Earth and Fire bending can do in harmony with each other.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After they finished and washed up, Goru went into the house while Zuko checked on his stolen ostrich horse. It was soundly asleep and Zuko debated the merits of risking getting bitten if he tried to wake it up and leave. He faced the same choice he had earlier: steal another ostrich horse and destroy enough of this place that they couldn’t chase after him so he could try to catch up to the Avatar, or stay longer and respect this family’s hospitality and risk getting even farther behind. </p><p>But after watching Goru hold fire long enough and hot enough to turn clay into solid rock, he respected the older firebender and did not want to cross him. He already had enough enemies without creating more. It would be dark soon anyway, and by now anyone traveling would be stopping to set up camp. He could smell food cooking, and told his inner Azula, who was still mocking him, to shut up. It’s not like she’d had to cross half the fucking Earth Kingdom by foraging, stealing, or begging for food, after three weeks adrift in the Northern Sea. What the fuck did she know about being hungry?</p><p>He gave the barn owl-cat watching him a scratch behind its ear-tufts. Azula could go fuck herself, wherever she was.</p><p>“Lee, are you coming? We’re waiting for you.” Hua appeared at the barn door, bouncing on her toes. </p><p>Zuko tried his best to smile nicely at her. It must have been a good enough smile, since she didn’t burst into tears or start screaming. “Alright, I’m coming.” </p><p>Dinner was just Goru and Yune and their children; Shan had left to meet a lady friend in the village. When Zuko came to the low table there were carrot-tomatoes cooked with onions and leafy greens, green beans in a garlic sauce, a large bowl of steaming jasmine rice, a pitcher of water, and a plate with thin slices of raw meat on metal skewers. It all smelled delicious.  </p><p>“Take a seat Lee, we’re ready to start. Guests first.” Yune told him, holding the baby on her lap. He sat down on the empty cushion between her and Chen. Same as earlier, he was served first and waited while the rest of the family dished up. First rice, then the vegetables, then-</p><p>“Dad, are you ready to cook the meat?" Chen asked. </p><p>Zuko glanced around. There was no source of heat to cook with. Across from him sat Goru, grinning widely and cupping his hands together. He realized what was happening a second before flames lit up and danced in the other firebender’s hands. Nobody at the table even flinched, except for Zuko. </p><p>“Showing off for our guest, dear?” Yune asked her husband, and spooned some mashed vegetables into the baby girl’s mouth. </p><p>“Of course I am! It’s not like I can show this off to the neighbors. But Lee’s been working with me at the kiln all afternoon. I think it’ll be alright,” Goru said, and everybody turned to look at Zuko, except for the baby who spit up the veggies her mom had just fed her. </p><p>“It’s alright,” Zuko said, answering the silent question the entire family was asking him. At that moment he felt that he would rather die than betray the trust they showed him, or fight to the death to defend them.</p><p>“Do you do this at home with your family?” Hua asked, her eyes wide and innocent.</p><p>“No,” he said, and had to turn away from looking at the fire in her father’s hands. “Maybe you could, um, show me what to do?” </p><p>“Sure! It’s easy. And don’t worry about dad being Fire, he’s not a soldier and he’s never burned anybody.” With that she took one of skewers, went over to her father, and showed Zuko how to hold it at just the right angle to cook the meat quickly and add it to the rice and vegetables.</p>
<p>

Then Chen handed him one. Zuko took it and forced himself to think about Iroh. He remembered all the times he watched his uncle heat up tea in his hands, warm up food, and how they used firebending to cook whatever fish they could catch while adrift in the Northern Sea. Even with focusing on those memories, his hands still shook slightly when he held a skewer of raw meat over the fire Goru held in his hands. When their eyes met and Goru smiled gently at him, Zuko decided his meat was done and stepped away, back to his seat where he kept his eyes down and didn’t respond to any of the family conversation around him.   </p><p>The bowls were different from the ones used for lunch, wide and shallow with a different glaze pattern. Now he understood how the bowls, cups, chopsticks, and platters on the table had been made by Yune and Goru, and the vegetables were probably from the garden Goru mentioned. Zuko glanced at Chen, who was holding his baby sister while his mother took her turn cooking meat for herself and her husband with the fire in her husband’s hands. Chen smiled back at him, and rather than try to smile back he looked down and shoved some more rice in his mouth so he couldn’t be expected to talk. But avoiding looking at anybody meant looking down into a ceramic bowl half full of food.  </p><p>A bowl made of earth, shaped by water, transformed by fire. Plants that were grown in the earth with water and Agni’s light, then transformed into food with water on the inside of a pot, and fire on the outside. And every breath was air.<i>The elements in balance sustain us.</i></p><p>“ . . . If we’re getting ready for the market tomorrow, is it just for pottery or are we putting out a table for vegetables too?” Chen asked.</p><p>“If we have enough extra it would be a good idea,” Yune answered. “Have you checked the garden today?”  </p><p>“No, and it needs to be watered tonight.” The boy handed his baby sister back to his mother and jumped up. Goru got up more slowly, using his crutch for leverage. </p><p>“I’ll get the barrel for water,” the man said. </p><p>Zuko stood up. “I’ll help your son with the garden, as payment for the meal,” he turned and bowed to Yune and Goru. “Thank you, this was the best food I’ve had in a long time.” </p><p>Yune smiled and bowed back to him. “My daughter is a better fisher than a river-rat, and my son is the family gardener. He will be happy for some help.” </p><p>-----</p><p>“Here, you pour the water and I’ll direct it.” Chen instructed. </p><p>Zuko still wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but at least the rain-barrel-on-wheels wheelbarrow he was pushing was easy to handle even when half-full of water from the family well. The boy was walking barefoot and backward like he had this morning at the river. They walked between rows of leafy plants and vegetables strung up on poles as tall as Zuko was while he dipped the pitcher into the water and poured it where Chen pointed to. Same as before, the water followed his feet to pool at the base of the plants and not run into the stonework paths between the rows. Sometimes Chen closed his eyes to completely focus on whatever form of earthbending he was doing with his feet, deciding which plants needed more water and which ones didn’t. </p><p>This was the strangest form of bending Zuko had ever seen, and he had fought against the Avatar and that Water Tribe girl. Even Yune’s clay-bending seemed a more normal variation of earthbending than this earth and water footwork. When they were at the last row he deliberately spilled some water all over the path while Chen’s eyes were closed, just to see what the boy would do. Some of it splashed over his feet and startled him into opening his eyes.</p><p>“Sorry, I didn’t mean to -” Zuko tried his best to sound apologetic. </p><p>“Don’t worry, I got it.” Chen told him. He walked off the path and to the middle of the row of cabbages and started jumping up and down. The air around him steamed, and he laughed and waved it away. Then he stomped his way to the path, steam rising with every step until he got to the puddle and walked backwards again back to the cabbages, the water following him as it had all night. By the time he was standing in the center of the cabbage patch all the water Zuko had spilled was gone from the path. Chen stood surrounded by plants that were as tall as his waist, crossed his arms and grinned at him.  </p><p>Zuko put the water wheelbarrow down. ‘“How are you doing this?” he demanded. “You’re not the Avatar. How can you be bending two different elements?” </p><p>“I’m not, I’m just an earthbender,” Chen walked back to Zuko. “But I’m also half Fire. You’re Fire Nation too, like my dad, right? You’re a firebender like him.”</p><p>Zuko nodded. “Yes,” he admitted. “I’m from the Fire Nation, and I’m a firebender.” He let a small flame slip through his fingers, and immediately extinguished it. If there was anywhere in the whole Earth Kingdom that he was safe being known as a firebender, it was here with this family. Nonetheless he still felt himself grow tense, preparing to fight if he had to, although he wasn’t sure if it was to defend himself or the boy in front of him, barefoot and dirty up to his knees. He was relieved that Chen’s open expression didn’t change into hatred or fear at his little demonstration. Zuko reminded himself that this was the son of a firebender who cooked for his children, instead of branding them. </p><p>“I think being half Fire makes my earthbending a little different than other earthbenders.” Chen said, and Zuko pulled his attention back to the child in front of him. “I can do the normal stuff like this,” he stomped his foot and this time a rock the size of his fist bounced out of the ground and into the air.  He punched out and it flew halfway down the row before falling back to the ground. He laughed and cheered like he had just won a fight, and in spite of himself Zuko smiled.</p><p>“That’s not too bad,” he said. </p><p>Chen shrugged. “Anybody can kick rocks around. But soil is different from rocks. Here, look.” he knelt down and waved at Zuko to join him. He put his hands in the dirt, digging his fingers into the rich black soil. “I can make it dry, like it’s hot, and I can feel when it’s thirsty and dry and wants water.” </p><p>Zuko knelt down in the dirt with the boy and watched, amazed, as steam rose from the soil around his hands, leaving it dry and cracked. “When it’s dry like this, it wants water. I’m not bending the water, I feel how the soil wants water and I make it feel thirsty, so the water comes in. The water follows where the soil needs it, like this.” He moved his hands slowly, and in the dim evening light Zuko could finally see how the soil dried around his hands and the water followed, like it was being wicked up by dry cotton fabric. </p><p>He placed a hand next to the boy’s small, dirty hands. It wasn’t exactly firebending in the classic style he had learned in the Royal Palace, but he could still feel energy like heat radiating into the soil. It reminded him of how he and Uncle survived adrift in the Northern Sea by bending the heat from their bodies out far enough to share under a blanket, mingling their energy together to keep them from dying of hypothermia. Iroh would lie behind him and wrap his arms around his nephew while he expanded the heat of his own chi, his own breath of fire, outwards to keep Zuko dry and warm. As the dark line of water moved towards Chen’s hands Zuko felt the water move through the soil under his hands to reach the dry spot the boy had created. </p><p>“Can you feel it? What I’m doing, bending like this?” Chen asked, his eyes bright and excited.</p><p>“Yes, that’s - that’s incredible,” Zuko said, and he meant it. “I’ve read about water benders, how they feel the push and pull of the water when they bend it. That’s what you’re doing, you’re using the energy in your bending to make the soil pull water towards it.”</p><p>“Yes! That’s it! You get it!!” Chen jumped up and flung his arms around Zuko’s neck and hugged him, he was so excited that another person could understand what he was feeling as he bent energy into the soil to want water. </p><p>“Woah, ok, ok, that’s great, um, yeah . . . ” Zuko had no idea what to do with a kid hugging him. People didn’t hug Zuko, especially not kids. Just Uncle, very occasionally, or to keep him from dying of hypothermia. He put his hands on the kids shoulder to get him off his neck as gently as possible. </p><p>Chen let go and stood up, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Can I show you something? Something really special that nobody else can do? Please?”</p><p>“You can do something even more special than this?” </p><p>“Yeah ‘cause I’m half-Fire and you’re a firebender like Dad so you might get it, come on.” Chen grabbed his hand and pulled him through the rows, poking through the plants looking for something. He stopped in front of a bean plant on the very edge of the garden that was wilted and drooping. “Watch this. It isn’t quick, but, but, just watch.” he let go of Zuko’s hand and knelt back down, placed his hands on either side of the plant and closed his eyes to concentrate. </p><p>Zuko watched and studied the boy. With his dark brown eyes closed, Zuko could see how much he looked like his father in the shape of his face, cheekbones and jaw, and slightly lighter skin. A Fire-blooded earthbender.</p><p>Steam started to rise from around his hands. The soil around this bean plant had been dry, but now it slowly grew dark and damp. Several more minutes passed before Zuko noticed the rich scent rising from the soil. It was a dark scent, damp, and smelled of rich earth and mud. With a shock he realized it reminded him of freshly uncovered earth in his mother’s garden when it had been turned over for new plants to be added. Chen opened his eyes and smiled at him with dark Earth eyes in a Fire-blood face. “Look,” he said, and nodded at the bean plant between his hands. </p><p>Zuko gasped. The leaves that had hung limp and dry were now flush and full, reaching out, renewed and glossy with life. What had been dry soil under Chen’s hands was now rich black loam, steaming and smelling strongly of fresh earth. “How did you do that?”</p><p>“My father told me that firebenders get their power from the breath. That mixes with their life force, their chi, and that’s what becomes power that they use to produce fire.” Chen told him, and looked at Zuko expectantly. </p><p>“That’s what my uncle told me, too,” he said. That wasn’t what he had learned from the formal tutors he had as a boy in the Royal Palace, but Iroh had been the better teacher.</p><p>“Well, my dad also said that everything has its own chi. Every living thing that Agni touches and blesses comes to life under the warmth of his Fire and has chi, but only firebenders can use their chi to make their own fire.” Chen held his hands the same way Goru did when he cooked dinner, pretending to hold fire in his dirty hands. </p><p>“You mean like this?” Zuko cupped his hands together and produced a tiny, flickering flame that didn’t extend past his fingertips. </p><p>“Yeah, like that. Say, you’re pretty good at that.” </p><p>“Thanks.” Zuko smiled and closed his hands, ending the flame. “But what does this have to do with your earthbending?”</p><p>“There’s chi in the soil.” </p><p>“What?” </p><p>“There’s chi in the soil, when it’s dark and rich like this.” He ran his fingers through the transformed dirt around the bean plant. “Not in the rocks. I mean there is kind of, but not like plants or animals.” Chen shrugged. “It’s hard to explain if you’re not an earthbender. Mom gets it but Dad doesn’t. Soil like this has chi in it, just like plants and animals. When the soil’s chi is strong enough it can share its chi with plants, and the plants grow strong and healthy, like this one.”  </p><p>“And you can feel that chi because your father is a firebender, then you use your own earthbending to make it stronger.” Zuko looked over the lush garden, a green oasis compared to the dry and rocky soil of the land he had traveled through. “That’s incredible.” </p><p>“Thanks,” Chen said. “This was my grandfather’s garden. He died last year, and it’s mine now. I’d rather grow food than fight people. Anybody can burn things down or throw rocks at each other. But with my garden, I can fight against people being hungry and starving to death.” </p><p>He broke off one of the beans and handed part of it to Zuko, then took one for himself. As Zuko ate it with him, he thought he had never eaten a vegetable that tasted so good before.</p><p>------</p><p>Zuko woke at dawn.<i> I rise with the sun,</i> he had told the Water Tribe girl, and that was true for more than just firebending. Even adrift in the Northern Sea he still couldn’t stay asleep past sunrise. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and ran his fingers through his short hair, then went to check on his stolen ostrich horse.</p><p>The damn thing was still lame. Of course it was still lame. The universe hated him. That was the natural order of things. His sister probably had komodo lizards and tanks to track the Avatar; he had to steal an ostrich horse that went lame. Zuko slammed his fist against the wall in frustration before he could control himself. </p><p>The ostrich horse in the next stall coo’d and trilled at him for waking it up. Zuko knew the bird was strong and healthy and well cared for. </p><p><i>You know why you’re such a loser, Zuzu? It’s because you’re still thinking about this. You should have stolen the damn bird yesterday, as soon as you saw it, and then burned down the whole stupid family. </i>Azula’s voice whispered her contempt in his mind. <i>Fire is supposed to be the element of power. You’re too weak. You don’t deserve to capture the Avatar. Stay with these peasants where you belong.</i></p><p>“No,” he said out loud, to hear his own voice and not his sister’s. He kept hearing her anyway.<i> Stupid. Weak. Pathetic. Useless. Failure. You deserve to be punished and suffering -</i>”</p><p>“NO!” He slid down against the wall and put his hands over his face as Azula’s voice changed into their fathers. “What would uncle say?” </p><p><i>This family has shown you great kindness Prince Zuko. They have trusted you with their secrets, trusted you not to hurt or betray them. They have shown you things that you thought were impossible. They love each other and they have welcomed you, even though you are a stranger.</i> Just imagining his uncle’s voice calmed him down, even after leaving him. Uncle would have loved this family, Zuko knew that without question. </p><p><i>Maybe you can find a nice Earth Kingdom family to adopt you.</i>Azula again. Even worse, this time it was almost tempting. Because this family actually could adopt him. Goru could claim he was a relative, and welcome him like a long lost s-- nephew. He could help with firing the pottery, help carry water for Chen, play with Hua and help her catch fish. He could protect this family from any roving bands of gangs or bandits. He could just become Lee, a Fire Nation soldier who deserted and got absorbed into the vast expanse of the Earth kingdom. He wouldn't even be the first person from the Fire Nation to do that.</p><p>Except that it wouldn’t last. Eventually the war would catch up with even this backwater farm. Eventually the Fire Nation’s superior military power would subdue the vast expanse of the Earth Kingdom, and even the impenetrable walls of Ba Sing Se would fall. And by ‘eventually’, Zuko knew that meant by the end of this summer, when Sozin’s comet returned.  </p><p>Zuko left the barn to see if the rest of the family was awake yet. He turned into the small courtyard and stopped short at the sight in front of him. </p><p>Goru and his older children were awake, seated and meditating together. Goru was on a cushion sitting with his bad leg stretched out, his hands open, one on top of the other, a small flame held in his open palm expanding and shrinking with his breath. Hua sat in her father’s lap, resting against his back with his arms around her, one hand on the stuffed toy in her lap and one hand resting on her father’s forearm, breathing in time with her father. Chen sat beside his father in perfect form for the same fire meditation, only instead of fire he held a smooth rock in one hand, the other hand resting an open palm on the ground.   </p><p>Zuko barely made it back to the barn before he fell to his knees on the soft hay.</p><p>How could this family exist? How could it even be real? Was this some type of hallucination brought on by hunger, his body lying somewhere beside the road while his mind dreamt of a loving family born of both Fire and Earth? He tried to catch his breath, to breathe calmly and slowly the way Iroh had taught him, but that just brought up memories of all the times that he had meditated with his uncle in the exact same pose he had just seen Goru and his children. An earth bending son. A non-bending daughter. Safe with their fire bending father. An impossible thing to exist, even after every impossible thing this family has shown him. </p><p>“Lee? Are you alright?” </p><p>Zuko looks up at Yune. “Why did you do it? Why did you marry a firebender?” That wasn’t what he wanted to say, but the words came out before he could stop them. </p><p>She knelt down beside him. “I didn’t marry a firebender. I married Goru, because he is a good man, and I knew he would be a good husband and father. I married him because he is brave and kind and funny, and because I love him. He may have Agni’s Gift but it is his choice how he uses it, and he does not use it for war.” </p><p>“I don’t understand. Why does he meditate with them? Why does he cook like that for them?” He looked into her dark brown eyes. Mother’s eyes, even if they weren’t his mother’s eyes. </p><p>“Every child we have, we don’t know what they will be, earthbender, firebender, or non-bender.” She placed her hand on her waist, a slight bulge already showing. “He does this so that if we do have a Fire child, they won’t be afraid of their own fire, and they will know that their bending can be used for something besides war.”</p><p>“But Chen and Hua aren’t firebenders!”</p><p>“No, but they are his children and he loves them.” She stood up and held out her hand. He stood up without it. </p><p>“I can’t stay here,” he said. “I have to keep going. I need to . . .” Zuko had no idea how to finish this. At the moment he wasn’t even sure what he needed to do. </p><p>“What do you need, Lee?” Goru came into the barn, the children following behind him.</p><p>“I need to find the Avatar,” Zuko said. “I’ve been searching for him for years. He’s here now, I have to find him.” That much was true. At that moment, it was the only thing he knew to be true. </p><p>“Why are you searching for him?” Goru asked. </p><p><i>Why are you searching for the Avatar?</i> </p><p>Zuko didn’t know what to say. To get his honor back? So his father would love him? So he could go home? Because he literally didn’t know what else to do with his life anymore? To prove to Azula he wasn’t weak? To prove something to his uncle? To prove something to himself? <i>Why are you searching for the Avatar?</i></p><p>“Are you going to help him end the war?” Chen asked.</p><p>“Yes!” Zuko grabbed at that answer. “Yes, I want to end the war. That’s - that’s why I’m searching for him. It’s my destiny.” It wasn’t even a lie. Was it a lie? The war would end if the Avatar was captured and the Fire Nation was finally victorious. Wouldn’t it? It was his destiny - wasn’t it? </p><p>Goru looked at him, his golden-brown eyes narrow. Until now the man had been open and honest with him, almost unnaturally so. Zuko almost welcomed the suspicion he felt he should have been met with from the start. He looked to his wife who shrugged, then nodded. </p><p>“You can take one of our birds, and we will take this one in exchange and care for it,” he said. “Whatever your destiny is, I will not keep you from it, and I won’t tempt you to dishonor yourself by being forced to consider stealing from us.” </p><p>Zuko took a step back from him, speechless and dumbstruck. This was too much. This family couldn’t really exist. Nobody ever helped him this much, except for his uncle.  </p><p>“Are you leaving?” Chen asked. “Do you need some extra food?”</p><p>“I can catch you another fish,” Hua offered. </p><p>Zuko shook his head. “Thank you, but your family has already done enough. I have to keep going.” </p><p>“But you’re going to need food with you while you travel. It’ll be just a minute!” Chen insisted, and ran off to his garden. </p><p>“I’m getting you some fish! Chen, wait up!” Hua ran after her brother. </p><p>Zuko looked at the children’s parents. “I didn’t ask them for that,” he tried to explain himself. “I won’t take your food if you need it.”</p><p>Goru smiled. “No, but I’m still proud of them that they want to help you. Don’t worry about us, just find the Avatar and help him. Now get your gear and let’s get this bird ready for you.”</p><p>It only took a few minutes for Zuko to gather his travel supplies, and then Chen and Hua were back. “Here, take this. I put as much chi in them as I could, and Hua wrapped up some smoked fish.” Chen gave him a heavy bag.</p><p>“And take this.” Yune handed him a small red and yellow glazed pot and lid that had come out of the kiln yesterday while he and Goru had been talking. “When you do find the Avatar, tell him about us. Tell him what Earth and Fire can do working together, and help him end the war and bring balance back to the world.”</p><p>Goru handed him the reins for the ostrich horse. “Go, and may Agni’s light bless your path.”</p><p>“Thank you.” Zuko said. “I will never forget you, any of you.” Then, before he could second guess himself he made the Flame of Agni with his hands and bowed to Goru. </p><p>The other firebender’s eyes glazed over with emotion. He curled his hands into the Flame and bowed back. “Please, find the Avatar and help him bring balance back to the world.”</p><p>“I will find him. I promise.” With that, Zuko mounted the ostrich horse and gave the family one last look before leaving. </p><p>As he rode off and back to the road, he couldn’t tell what he had lied about, and which promise he had made that he intended to keep.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The scene with Zuko and Chen in the garden was the initial inspiration for this whole story. It's my answer to the question 'how would earth bending affect, or be affected by, soil microbiology?'</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So I'm a biologist, studying ecology, and I've reviewed basic soil science in several classes. One of the things that bothers me about earthbending as it's shown in ATLA is that it always seems to come down to throwing around rocks, even though there is so much more to soil than just rocks. I wrote this to explore some ideas I have about earthbending being used to understand soil, a living ecosystem in it's own right. Chapter 3 will be a fan essay about the scientific inspiration for the bending in this story. </p>
<p>I also wanted a 'Zuko Alone' type story about Zuko meeting a mixed Earth/Fire family that was loving and functional, leading him to a 'Zuko.exe has stopped working' moment trying to process what's right in front of him. Finally, I love all the little details worked into the three seasons about how bending is used in everyday life and I want to expand on that.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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